peas

I have mentioned before that Ada's daycare teaches the kids different signs. Two of the early signs were 'Please' and 'Thank You'. She never seemed to pick up either of these signs, although she will occasionally say 'Dank Do' when we ask her to. Well the other night in the car on the way home she was demanding some animal crackers. Before I handed them back to her I instinctively asked her to say 'Please'; and before I knew what was happening she was rubbing her chest (the sign for 'Please'). I thought it might be a fluke so the next time she asked for more crackers I asked again. This time she did the sign AND said 'Peas'. I could not have been more proud. FINALLY, my crazy, neurotic, incessant requests for politeness were granted. Not that she really knows that she is being polite - but I'll take 'figured out how to manipulate cookies out of Mom', too.

cutest thing

Now that Ada is older, we have started to let her wander around the house without one of us hovering over her watching her every move. We know that when we can't hear her we should get up and find her but for the most part she grunts and babbles her way through life. I think Ada really enjoys this small dose of independence and trust, but the coolness does seem to be wearing off a bit. Now when Ada wants to wander around the house she likes to take one of us with her. When this happens she will walk up to you with her most precious of faces, and you will think, "Oh how sweet, Ada wants to cuddle with me." WRONG. She'll divert her eyes at the last second and wrap her tiny fingers around one of your fingers and start to drag and pull and grunt - whatever it takes to get you up on your feet. Then she will start the navigation process. This is usually pretty funny because she doesn't always think about the angles she is working with when she grabs someone's finger, so she often finds herself twisted around or walking backwards. Once she figures this out, she takes us on long winding walks through the house. There is really no rhyme or reason to these walks, and they often involve many laps of the kitchen as she scans all of the toys she has placed on the floor, as well as scanning the counter tops for binkies and snacks that she likes. Often, these walks end up in her room where she will finally drop our finger and start to play with her rocking horse, blocks, or balled up socks. After 16 months it is nice to know that when Ada really wants to play, she wants us there with her. We'll see if that is still true after 16 years.

toys

Ada has all sorts of store bought toys, and she loves all of these toys, but often it seems like her most favorite toys are regular old household items. In the past this has been stuff like Tupperware or a Christmas garland, but last night she picked up a new and interesting toy.

We were cooking our dinner so we sat Ada on the counter next to the stove so she could watch. She was interested in the cooking tofu for a second or two and then quickly started looking for something to play with. Thankfully she didn't try to play with the open flame under the pan or anything else dangerous, instead, she grabbed the pepper mill. First she decided she liked to bang it on the stove, then she insisted that we put her down on the floor all while she kept her death grip on the pepper mill. As she walked around the kitchen she found lots of other hard surfaces to bang the pepper mill against. In an effort to distract her from the pepper mill I offered her some multi-grain mini rice cakes and she grabbed the bag, but also some how managed to keep her firm grasp on the pepper mill. She then sat down in her Bumbo - which she amazingly still can squeeze into - still grasping her pepper mill AND now her little bag of rice cakes. She looked a little surprised at the tight fit, but then quickly distracted herself by banging the pepper mill on the tile floor. We do have a really cool Christmas present for Ada sitting in the garage, but I'm thinking that maybe we'll save that for next year and instead wrap up the entire contents of our spice drawer, because, really, that is what she is going to end up playing with anyway.

poor little baby

When sickness hits Ada's daycare it hits the whole family, so our family has been a little under the weather for about a week now. When Elliot dropped off Ada last Friday one of Ada's classmates was getting sick all over the room. She was sent home and we all thought, well that was taken care of quickly so hopefully we missed the part where Ada pukes her brains out all over the house. And, while we were sick all weekend, all of us managed to hold down what little food we managed to eat. Until 1 am this morning. I was actually up fighting my own cough when I heard Ada coughing away in her room, and started thinking, "Poor thing, she gets sick like I get sick and that means long drawn out illnesses, with incessant coughing that keeps you up all night long." And then I heard it, a different cough. A more chunky cough. Followed by some crying and I had a gut feeling that we had NOT missed the puking phase of this illness. So we whipped into cleanup mode, got Ada cleaned up and just as we thought she was starting to settle down, she got sick again. She ended up feeling better shortly after that and we thought she was Ok this morning, until she got sick while we were getting her ready for daycare. All this time, in between her bouts of illness, Ada was very clingy. I have written before about how snuggly Ada gets when she is sick, but this time she really played up the 'I need my mommy' act. And of course I have fallen for it hook line and sinker. I always knew that kiddos needed their parents love and compassion and cuddles when they were sick, but I had NO idea that the way God got around the whole parents being grossed out by gallons of baby puke, was that he built in the 'poor little baby' reflex. You know the one, where even though your baby has puke in their hair and on their hands and their breath stinks like a heavy coat of spoiled milk; when they reach out for you - instead of retching and gagging from the utter stench of it all, you hold them close and put their head on your shoulder and rock them back and forth. Whispering assurances in their ear and thinking to yourself, 'Poor little baby, I wish I could go through this for her'.

house rule

When Ada is sick, we all suffer. Not because she passes whatever she has on to both Elliot and I, and that does happen, but because Ada has realized that Mommy and Daddy can't stand to hear her cough and then cry and then cough and then cry. Well last night Ada took full advantage of the fact that she is indeed smarter than the rest of us by pulling this cough/cry routine just after we put her to bed. In fact, she was so pitiful that after slaving away making cookies for her daycare, I went in to comfort her. I know how awful I feel when I'm sick and it sounded like she just needed some mama love. And it seemed to work. I picked her up, she snuggled into my shoulder and we sat in her rocking chair in a wonderful mama-Ada hug. Slowly she calmed down, her breathing slowed to a normal rhythm and I thought she had finally fallen asleep. I slowly lowered her in my arms to check if she was asleep and wah-la she was out. So I put her down in her crib and BAM just like she was 9 months old again - she popped awake. Only now she can walk, and knows the joys of playing with the Christmas decorations, and riding in her car, and climbing on all of her chairs. So now, she wanted down and out of that dark room.

I did what all parents think they'll never do, I feel into the carefully laid trap. Ada knew that I had a limit to the amount of crying I could stand, and she called me on it. She lured me into her room, lulled me into a sense of comfort with our snuggle time, and just as she sensed my guard was down she pounced. Two hours later she was still up and running around the house. So tired that the only thing she could do was laugh. I'd like to think she was laughing just for the joy of laughing, but part of me thinks she was laughing at me, because you know - she finally confirmed that she rules our house.

mama's little helper

This time of year there are work potlucks, friend's holiday parties, and now Ada's daycare holiday party. All which require me to bake something yummy to bring along. I guess I could just go to the store and buy something, but as a former girl scout, I kind of feel like that is cheating.


Earlier this week, I needed to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (yum) for my work potluck and I figured I could make the dough while Elliot made dinner and Ada decided that cookie dough was more interesting than soup so she decided to help me.


Ada is a big butter lover, so when I put the two, yes TWO, sticks of butter in the bowl she almost went into convulsions she was so excited about that much butter in one place. I knew I had to quickly distract her, so I started measuring out the sugar. She was really curious about the strange white substance I was pouring into the measuring cup. Then she figured out how to help me pour the sugar into the bowl. When the mixer started to mix together the sugar and the butter she was really amazed - two of her favorite things being made into one - there really is a heaven. Next was the flour. She has seen flour before at daycare. At daycare, they use flour to teach about texture. So Ada thought she knew what flour was used for - sifting through her fingers, and apparently pouring it all over her little legs. Next we moved on to the pumpkin, Ada was really curious about the slimy squishy orange substance. Then she stuck her finger in the left over pumpkin and tasted it - apparently she like it because she grabbed the spoon and started in on the rest of it. The final piece was the chocolate chips. Up to this point, the highlight of the cookie making experience was probably the butter - but then Ada saw the giant bag of chocolate chips she had picked up at the grocery store a couple of weeks before. And then she saw me open it, and to her wonder, pour most of the contents into the mix we had been working on. At this point, I thought it was important to teach Ada the secret to cookie making. The reason why the maker of the cookies puts forth so much love and effort to make the homemade yumminess for everyone else. Whenever you add chocolate chips to cookie batter, you save a small portion of chocolate chips for yourself to "taste" as the final mixing occurs. And this, this was definitely Ada's FAVORITE part of making cookies.

so grown up

Last Thursday night Elliot, Ada, and I went out for dinner. We went right after we picked up Ada and she was in a pretty good/hyper mood so we picked a booth with a wrap around bench so Ada could walk around but still be contained.

We ordered some garlic bread sticks (Ada's favorite) and when they arrived we realized that they came with some marinara sauce for dipping. Now, we know Ada loves dipping french fries in ketchup, but I thought that had to do with the ketchup more than the dipping. Turns out she is as big a fan of dipping as she is of ketchup. We broke off a piece of bread stick for her and she started contentedly munching away. Until she saw both Elliot and I dip our bread sticks into the sauce. She stood up on her bench seat, leaned way forward and dipped her bit of bread into the sauce. Well, dunked is a more fitting description. She had marinara sauce up to her wrist, but she didn't let this stop her. She then brought her bread back to her lips, only it didn't get much further than her chin because it was soaked and weighed down by sauce. Of course this lead to a chin full of sauce and fingers full of sauce, which she promptly wiped clean on her new turtleneck. Eventually she managed to navigate the bread to her mouth but at that point she realized that she had dipped her bread in sauce instead of ketchup and she lost interest in the bread.


After our meal had arrived, I carefully cut up pieces of food for Ada, and Ada was feeling awful grown up so she decided to pick up the knife and try to "cut" her food as well. After that she insisted on taking my fork so that she could eat, because who would eat with their fingers. Um.. I guess that would be me now. She also insisted on shaking Parmesan cheese on her food just like Mom and Dad. Thankfully, even through all of this big girl action she managed to eat quite a bit of food. Once she finished eating she wanted down from the table and then back up into my lap.

Now, Elliot and I had both ordered a glass of wine with dinner and I was finishing up my glass of wine when Ada insisted on sitting in my lap. That was when she took this big girl act one step to far. She was happily sitting in my lap, playing with my plate and then she saw it. My glass of wine and she lost all focus on any other objects and honed in on the fancy glass with the rich red liquid. She grabbed a hold of it and tried to bring it to her lips. That's when I put my foot down. My baby can eat grown up food, she can use a butter knife to cut her food, and she can even use a big fork to feed herself; but under aged drinking, she is going to have to wait until she is at least 5 before she starts doing that.

not a picky eater

Sunday night we stopped at Souplantation on our way home from floor hockey to get some takeout salads. Whenever we eat at Souplantation we get Ada a little plate full of some of her favorite items from the salad bar. This mostly consists of chick peas, kidney beans, pasta spirals, and black olives (yuck!). So when we did our takeout we used a few of our little containers to do the same so Ada would have her own set of food when we sat down to dinner. We were running a little late so we decided to let Ada pick at her set of beans and olives while Elliot gathered up some bread and soup to complete our dinner. I thought she'd munch on one or two kidney beans and then be bored and want to move on, not so much. She plowed through her entire container - equivalent to a good handful of food. So on the way out we refilled her container, which she insisted on holding and eating from on the way home. Once again she plowed through this entire container before we got home. This left me scrambling a bit because I didn't expect her to finish one of the containers, let alone two. So when we got home I picked through Elliot's and my salads to pick out food that Ada will eat. She ate most of this, with the notable exception of carrot slivers. She picked these off of every other piece of food we gave her. She also got a little minestrone soup and clam chowder (which she loved), and some wheat bread with butter. Not only was she eating a lot, she was eating fast. I got tired just trying to keep up with the speed of her food intake. In the end in this one sitting she ate more black olives than I have eaten in my entire life, proving that at age 1 she is already less of a picky eater than her mama.

daddy's girl

We had a great weekend hanging out with Ada. Saturday was a pretty typical day for us, but Sunday started out with a lot of unusual activity and it appears that Ada got a little worked up. We started off the day getting our Christmas tree. In the past, Elliot and I have waited until the week before Christmas to get our tree, but we thought Ada might enjoy having the tree around so we got it a little early this year. Ada was a little shy at the tree lot and didn't really grasp what was going on, but was happy to be out of the house. Next, we did some shopping at Target to get some construction paper and paper ornaments. We decided that we would decorate our tree with paper ornaments just in case Ada figured out how to pull the tree over - we didn't want to have to deal with a squished Ada AND broken glass from the ornaments. Ada loves shopping, especially if there is a cart involved. Not because she likes sitting in the cart. She will put up with sitting in the cart for a little while, but she usually ends up out of the cart, "pushing" it as we slowly move through the aisles. We had such a good time at Target that we figured we would push our luck at Marshalls for a few items we have been looking for, and finally ended up at Einstein Brothers for some breakfast fare. With all of those activities we thought Ada was sure to crash for her morning nap shortly after we got home. And sure enough, she showed all of her sleeping signs, but for some reason - she just refused to fall asleep. We tried a couple of times to get her down in her crib - even letting her wail about for what felt like an hour (probably not more than 5 minutes). Finally we resolved ourselves to a no nap morning and brought her out to watch some football with us. It wasn't more than one minute before she had curled up in Elliot's arms and fallen asleep. Elliot was also feeling a bit tired so he just laid down on the couch and they took a nice long nap together. Once they woke up they had some lunch and as they finished up, Elliot gave Ada a piece of garlic bread (her current favorite food) and propped her up on a pillow next to him on the couch. She was content but had a look on her face that showed that something was just not right. She looked around a little bit, looked up at Elliot, looked at his arm that was over her shoulder and resting on the arm rest and then something clicked. She grabbed his arm and pulled it in close around her waist, and snuggled in a little bit more. At that moment in Ada land everything was right with the world. She was well rested, her belly was full, and her Daddy - he was wrapped around her little finger. It was adorable.